How dare they. Bath Iron Works and the Chamber of Commerce are suing Maine over the implementation of paid family medical leave.

Taxpayers of Maine have showered BIW with gifts worth $194 million since 2009. The tax BIW’s upset about comes to a whopping $620,000. That’s one-third of 1% of the loot Maine taxpayers generously forked over.

BIW is a subsidiary of General Dynamics, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors. Wanna guess how much that mega-corp death machine has received in subsidies and bailouts? Better take a seat. Answer: nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.

So, General Dynamics is suing the state of Maine over a one-time $620,000 tax bill. Hypocrisy much? Sure, taxpayers can subsidize a corporation with hundreds of millions. But ask that corporation to contribute a dime to the general welfare? Can’t do that.

The annual revenue of General Dynamics ($42.3 billion) equals 57% of the entire real GDP of Maine ($73.8 billion). Revenue at General Dynamics is up fully 22% percent. Just last month, BIW’s parent company authorized a huge stock buy-back, one that will raise its stock price further enriching its oligarch owners.

Since we’re not beating BIW’s swords into plowshares anytime soon, we should at least tax them to fund the profoundly life-affirming paid family medical leave program.

Susan Feiner
Yarmouth